1. Field of the Invention
The present invention prevents the wasting of water in toilets.
2. Prior Art
Presently, toilet water is being wasted because of faulty flush mechanisms. This invention addresses this problem.
Known automatic fluid shut-off valves include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,290 issued to Sturman et al. on Feb. 26, 1985. In FIGS. 2-3 of Sturman et al., a pressure regulating electrically operable shut-off valve is shown having a permanent magnet 84 that is used to latch a third magnetic member 98 with a magnet member 82.
Also known automatic fluid shut-off valves, in FIGS. 1-2 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,689 B2 issued to Grill on Nov. 19, 2002, there is shown a two-way two-position fluid control valve having a solenoid 48. When the solenoid 48 is electrically actuated, an armature 58 is pulled into contact with a core 56 while a transfer tube 42, and a valve 26 coupled to the transfer tube 42, move from a first (closed) position shown in FIG. 1 to a second (opened) position shown in FIG. 2. While the fluid control valve of Grill is suitable for many applications, the solenoid 48 disclosed therein for both i) electromagnetically pulling the armature 58 (and valve 26) from its closed position to its opened position, and ii) holding the armature 58 (and valve 26) in its opened position may be unsuitable for other applications. For example, it may be too expensive and/or too power consuming for certain automatic fluid shut-off applications, such as those found in various places of the common household.
Also known in U.S. Pat. No. 6,820,856 B2 issued to Grill Nov. 24, 2004, is a two-way two-position control valve assembly operable to manually open and automatically block fluid flow therethrough.
It is therefore desirable to provide a simple, energy-efficient, reliable, relatively inexpensive two-way fluid control valve assembly for various household and commercial applications that senses fluid flow and automatically shuts off the valve when a preset time limit has expired.
The present invention discloses a two-way fluid control valve with a sensor that sense fluid flow and automatically shuts off the valve when a preset time limit has been reached. When fluid flow stops, the timing mechanism resets to zero.